Sunday, February 15, 2009

What A Weekend!!

This weekend Brandon and I got to get away for two days. We left Thursday afternoon for the valley, and cam home Saturday afternoon. It was a great get away, and I am already ready for another one!! Here are our weekend details...

When we got to the valley Thursday evening we went and ate at Texas Roadhouse (YUMMY) and then went and watched "Taken". I thought it was a great movie.

Friday morning we took two of our favorite missionaries (Elder Herzog & Elder Page) and their companions to brunch at Crackerbarrel. After brunch we went to another movie "The Pink Panther". I also thought that was a good movie.

After the movie we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and the concert. We ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (Brandon's B-day gift) and it was DELICIOUS!!

Brandon and I in front of Ruth's Chris

Then we headed to the Jim Brickman concert. I bought Brandon tickets to the concert for Christmas knowing that it was his birthday weekend. This was Brandon's first time to attend his concert and my second. If you don't know who Jim Brickman is...you need to find out. He is a song writer/piano player. He has written hundreds of songs for other artists. One of my favorites is Martina McBride's 'Valentine'. Anyway, funny story time...

We got to down town Phoenix and found a place to park. There were people everywhere and since we didn't really know where we were going we decided to follow the crowd. I have been taught not to follow the crowd my entire life, and should have stuck with that even in this situation. Well, we ended up at the Dodge Theatre thinking that is where the concert was. The lady at the door went to check my purse and found a camera. She tells me that I can't have my camera or my picture phone and that I would have to run it back to my vehicle. So Brandon took off to the truck(3 blocks away) and put the stuff in it. He got back and we got back in line, get to the door again, and our tickets wouldn't scan. This other guy comes over and takes us over to this other door and he starts looking at our ticket and says 'Uh...these are Jim Brickman tickets' and we are like "ya, we know!" and he says, "um...this is the Robin Williams show. Jim Brickman is at the Orpheum Theatre, two blocks down and one block over." Then he looked at his watch (since we had about 5 minutes) and said "you better hurry!" So we took off walking as fast as we could. Well, on our way and I say to Brandon "I bet they don't even search my bag over here, and you would have ran all the way back to the truck for nothing". Well, sure enough! They don't even check my bag, we just walk right in and sit down. Anyway, they open the show and tell us "If you would like to meet Jim Brickman after the show, all you need to do is sign up to be a V.I.P. member." So, Brandon knowing how much I love Jim Brickman, goes out during the intermission and joins the VIP club for $35.00. So after the concert we are waiting in line to meet him (we were the first in line!!) and his manager comes out and says "Jim will be here in a minutes. Feel free to take pictures, video, etc."!!! I was SOOOOO mad!!! My freakin camera was in the TRUCK!!! It was still an unforgettable experience to meet him, Anne Cochran, Mark Masri, and Tracy Silverman.

This is Jim Brickman

Saturday we headed home around noon after some coupon shopping. I told Brandon my parents wanted to take us out to dinner for his birthday and that we needed to be at Trappers at 5:00. Well, what Brandon didn't know is that I had a surprise 30th birthday dinner planned for him. He was totally surprised and we had a lot of fun visiting with family.

Brandon and I at Trappers

Mom and Dad (thanks mom and dad for setting up your projector for his video)

Jeremy and Rikki(Brandon's first cousin)

Tom, Ahsly (Brandon's cousin), Aunt Kim and Uncle Dale

Courtney & Jake

Aunt Debbie and Aunt Nellie

Trav and Kalee

Grandma Barbara and Brandon (Grandma Barbara drove down from Utah to put flowers on Grandpa's grave for his 80th b-day. We were SO glad she was able to be here with us!!)

Brandon's Counsins, Shelan and Tel

Nicole and Jed

Uncle Vance and Aunt Michelle (they are the reason Brandon and I are what we are!!)

Other people that were there...Carly & Nicholas, Tristen, Eva, Michael, Porter, Amelia, Brandon's cousin Ryan and his fiance, Grandma Muder's sister, and Uncle Dennis. Thanks everybody for coming and making the night all that much better!!!

Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I always laugh my butt off when I read your blog! I love that you are always enjoying life and your family. You have done so much for so many and you should be proud! Love you Tiff! ~Lonna